The local election officials and volunteers in my small Maine town still count the votes by hand. There was a 66% turnout which meant it took them over 4 hours to count 1524 votes. As Town Democractic Chair I was there until they were finished, around 12:15 AM, so I could report back to the candidates I'd been working with, and to the County and State officials.

We were gratified that our new young Democrat won 60% of the vote to the Maine House, helping keep a Democratic majority there. This is not an easy town for Democrats to win as it is almost equally divided between Democrats, Republicans, and unenrolled "Independents." And about 10% of the voters supported the Green Party candidate for Governor or other anti-war independents in other races. Our Maine Senate candidate won our town but may not win his district; a major town still hasn't reported in and it is heavily Republican; that candidate was a moderate Republican who two years ago switched to the Democrats and there is no love lost between him and his former party members.

Olympia Snowe, the Republican U. S. Senator, handily won re-election. She appears to be unbeatable.

Our two Democratic Congressional candidates also won re-election by comfortable margins.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble